Client Case Study – Craig Kent

At Boox, we pride ourselves on the quality of service that we provide for our clients. Accounting can be tricky for a freelancer and so it’s our aim to make the process as easy and hassle free as possible.

Recently we caught up with one of our newest clients, Craig Kent, to see how he was finding life as a freelancer and what he’s made of the Boox service so far.

How long have you been freelancing/contracting?

About two weeks!

What influenced your decision to look into freelancing/contracting as a career path?

Basically, I’d spent five years working at Ladbrokes where I was very happy. We had lots of contractors there but never once did it cross my mind to come out of perm employment and try contracting myself.

When I felt the need to move on, I spent quite a few months looking for the right role and a job came up earlier this year which looked great on paper, but I had some initial reservations. I took the position but my reservations turned out far worse than I was expecting, and I quickly realised that I’d need to do something else.

My experience got me thinking that ‘I’ve worked for quite a lot of people over the last few years and none of them have really inspired me’.

That’s probably because I’ve got 20 plus years marketing experience. I had the sense that if the decisions were down to me and I didn’t have all this red tape to get through, I could get things done and get better results than those I was working for.

What really made my mind up in the end was I got an email from a recruitment agency, which said ‘why not try contracting?’ As a CRM specialist, getting your campaign right is all about hitting your customer at the right time, with the right content. The email resonated with everything I was feeling and so I chose to go and try contracting for myself.

Making this change also means I don’t have to limit myself to just one specific area of Marketing. I want to give back my expertise with regards to CRM but I also want to evolve new skills going forward.

Why did you choose Boox as your accountant?

Having seen this email from the recruitment agency I met with them and they gave me a list of four umbrella companies – this was the route I was going to go down originally, and having spoken to them all, the one that really interested me was Liquid Friday.

At that point they put me in touch with Boox because it looked to me at that time that going down the Limited Company route was going to be the better choice as opposed to an umbrella company.

That wasn’t an instant decision because my sister-in-law works in an accountancy firm and they were going to do me a deal to go with them. What I found after researching it all was that Boox was the far better option. It basically offers the full accounting service with regards to what I need and they have simplified it. Whether in the long term it turns out to be the right choice, who knows, in the short term it definitely looks like it was the right choice.

What do you particularly like about the Boox service?

What I like is that they manage to get things set up in less than a week. That includes helping me get my limited company set up and my business bank account as well as doing all the admin for this. I was then put in touch with my accountant, Kiri, who so far has been absolutely excellent. I had loads of questions, and in the two weeks leading up to starting my new contract she has been unbelievably helpful. Whenever she has said she’s going to do something and get back to me she always has.

Some of the questions haven’t been that straightforward and rather than try and blag her way through them, she has been very honest with me, giving me concrete answers where she can.

So far, I am very impressed.

Do you find you are more organised in terms of financial admin and if so in what ways?

Not yet because I haven’t invoiced or had to do any expenses just yet but it looks like it should be a straightforward system.

How easy/quick was it to get started with Boox?

Very quick, the service has been exemplary so far.

What do you enjoy most about contracting/freelancing?

So far, because it’s my first role it doesn’t really feel like I’m self-employed. I’ve been taken on as a part of a company to do some consultancy. I’m sure over time that if I manage to extend this contract or get another shortly after it will be much better than working full time, but right now it doesn’t really feel much different.

What do you enjoy the least?

The thought that after October I may not have another job.

What are the biggest challenges of having a limited company?

The onus to make sure that I stay on top of my finances.

Written byJonathan London

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